Book 1, The Last Days of Socrates: Chapter 1, Introductory Notes

• This book was prepared by scholars and professional editors, and was designed to be used by college and university students.

• The text of the dialogues is considered to be timeless, but it is an ancient text, and so the notes are helpful for understanding the material in context.

• Due to the popularity of the dialogues, there are many different versions available, and most of them are quite good; the major variances are in the pagination and the notes. Tarrant recommends using the content as a point of reference, instead of page numbers, to avoid confusion.

• The notes provide background information that makes the dialogues accessible to people without a higher formal education; Socrates himself was one of those people. He pursued the company of learned men, and questioned them to learn things that he otherwise could have known only...